⭐️ Sausage & mash pie ⭐️

❤️ This recipe is from The Slimming Foodie book📒 ❤️

CALORIES PER SERVING: 497
SERVES: 4

Ingredients:
2 red onions, finely chopped
low-calorie cooking spray or spray oil
1 garlic clove, crushed
8 reduced-fat pork sausages, each sliced into 6 pieces
250ml (9fl oz) beef stock
390g (13¹/20z) can green lentils, drained and rinsed
2 tablespoons tomato purée
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 tablespoon brown sauce
3-4 white potatoes (total weight 700g/1lb 90z), peeled and cut into chunks
400g (140z) can butter beans, drained and rinsed
4 tablespoons semi- skimmed milk
salt and pepper

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 220°C/200°C fan (425°F), Gas Mark 7.
2. In a sauté pan, fry the onions gently in low-calorie cooking spray for about 6 minutes, until they are starting to soften.
3. Add the garlic and stir-fry for 30 seconds, then add the chopped-up sausages. Increase the heat and stir-fry for about 5 minutes, until the sausages are starting to brown.
4. Pour in the stock, add the lentils, tomato purée, thyme and brown sauce and season with salt and pepper. Allow to simmer gently over a low heat while you cook the potatoes.
5. In a medium-sized saucepan, cover the potato chunks with boiling water, bring to the boil, then simmer for 10 minutes. After this time, add the butter beans to the potatoes and simmer for another 10 minutes.
6. Drain the potatoes and butterbeans and, using a potato masher, mash them into a creamy, smooth mash with the milk. Season with a little salt and pepper.
7. Spoon the sausage mixture into an ovenproof dish, then spread the mashed potato evenly over the top. Use a fork to rough up the top of the potato by dragging it vertically and then horizontally over the potato, creating a criss-cross pattern that will give some lovely crispy bits when baked.
8. Spray the top of the pie with some cooking spray, then bake for 25-30 minutes until golden brown, with some crispy edges on top.

Food photo credit: Chris Terry

⭐️ Lemony chicken & courgette carbonara ⭐️

❤️ This recipe is from my first cookbook, The Slimming Foodie 📒 (find it here 👉 https://amzn.to/3LaXNNH) ❤️

This is a really lovely light, summery pasta. The creamy, garlicky carbonara has just a hint of lemon.

CALORIES PER SERVING: 442
SERVES: 4

Ingredients:

240g (8¹/20z) dried spaghetti
4 egg yolks
60g (2140z) Parmesan cheese, finely grated
2 chicken breasts, chopped small
low-calorie cooking spray or spray oil
4 garlic cloves, crushed
finely grated zest and juice of 2 unwaxed lemons
2 courgettes (about 250g/ 90z), sliced into 3mm (18 inch) pieces, then halved
salt and pepper
handful of parsley leaves, finely chopped, to serve

Method:

1. Put the spaghetti in a large pan of boiling water to simmer for 11 minutes.
2. Beat the egg yolks in a medium-sized bowl, then beat in the Parmesan.
3. Meanwhile, in a large frying pan or sauté pan, fry the chicken over a high heat in low-calorie cooking spray until no pink is showing (about 3 minutes), then add the garlic, lemon zest and juice, and season with salt and pepper. Keep frying gently while the spaghetti is cooking.
4. When the pasta is nearly ready, take a ladleful of the pasta water, add it to the egg mixture and mix it in thoroughly. 5. Stir the courgette pieces in with the chicken.
6. Check the spaghetti is cooked, then drain it.
7. Remove the pan of chicken and courgette from the heat, add the spaghetti and then the egg mixture. Stir well until everything is coated with the sauce. Serve with chopped parsley and grind more pepper over.
NOTE You can swap the chicken for bacon and leave out the lemon juice and zest for a more traditional carbonara. Why not whip up the leftover egg whites to make some crunchy crumble topping (see page 193 in the book) to go in the freezer ready for the next time you make crumble?

Food photo credit: Chris Terry